THEY came for him in the middle of the night. “He was caught red-handed,” said Svetlana Petrenko of Russia’s Investigative Committee, as she announced corruption charges against Russia’s economy minister, Alexey Ulyukayev, the highest-ranked sitting minister to be arrested in the history of post-Soviet Russia. Investigators claim that Mr Ulyukayev extorted a $2m bribe from the vast state oil company Rosneft, in exchange for approving its controversial purchase last month of the government’s controlling stake in Bashneft, a mid-sized oil producer. Mr Ulyukayev was placed under house arrest; he pleaded not guilty.
The minister’s precipitous fall sent shockwaves through the Russian elite on November 15th. Power struggles inside the Kremlin have been intensifying as Russia’s economy stagnates and warring clans argue over the country’s direction. Mr Putin has reshuffled a handful of high-level officials in recent months, including his long-time chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov. Several governors have been taken down on corruption charges, most recently the governor of the Kirov region, Nikita Belykh, who was shown receiving wads of cash...Continue reading
from Europe http://ift.tt/2fSehwj
via https://ifttt.com/ IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment